


Stories of the Second Self: Wormwood

by John_Steiner



Series: Alter Idem [173]
Category: Urban Fantasy - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:48:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23151229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/John_Steiner/pseuds/John_Steiner
Summary: Candice Ibarra goes on a hike outside Cincinnati when she finds an odd patch of bark that appears chewed off from a tree. On the underside she realizes that instead of borer insects the bark was seared into a pattern resembling words. However, a group of Fae including Régine Candelaria have also taken a keen interest. Candice's control over her pyromancy is put to the test.
Series: Alter Idem [173]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1618813





	Stories of the Second Self: Wormwood

Changing wasn't something Candice Ibarra did often, though when she did it was during one of her weekend hikes. A hike to someone like Candice was much longer than for regular people. She left the Cincinnati city limits on all fours and stayed away from the roads. For werewolves out alone, it wasn't smart to be where passing drivers might take the opportunity to commit a hate crime without witnesses.

Since moving to the city to be closer to the university, Candice grew familiar with many lesser used trails that carried only faint hints of werewolf passage, and virtually no trace of other Pentacastes or humans. However, this time Candidate caught a whiff of Fae.

It wasn't their own body scent Candice's lupine nose picked up but the new ager type fragrances some tended to wear. The stew of smells grew stronger, though Candice went on despite that. She hoped that if she didn't bother them there wouldn't be a problem.

Trotting on, Candice noticed something. A thick lower branch of a tree was missing a patch of bark. Nothing unusual with grubs and borers gnawing away at the cork layers, except Candice noticed a hint of wood searing in the smell rather than the musty wood rot she normally associated with bare wood of trees.

The shed bark lay under the branch, and when Candice padded closed to it she saw the pattern in the bark that at first looked like how insects would've chewed their path underneath.

There were no sign or smell of grubs, and the patterns in the bark appeared to have been burned in. Candice's own unusual pyromancy had some far reaching affects, but she couldn't fathom anything like this from what she did with Dr. Appelbaum's guidance.

Hearing steps made Candice look up toward where the light breeze carried the Fae scents from, she gauged that indeed they fit the sound of bipedal hooves. Then Candice looked down at the burn pattern again and something stood out.

Because of the overlaps Candidate hadn't recognized that they were in the fashion of cursive letters. The writing, such as it was, had no organized order of lines, and instead the stream of words swirled around as though the sentences were a snake that had slithered back and forth over itself.

"It's not far, Mama Candelaria," Candice heard someone say.

As Candice rear up to stand and turn several Fae entered into view. In the middle of them was a woman of thirteen-point antlers, and her eyes shot daggers are the sight of Candice.

A Cernunnos Fae woman, being fully a head taller, having seven-point antlers, and heavier muscular build, looked to the Fae elder. "I'll get rid of her."

"Just on a hike," Candice said, choosing words her wolf jaw and tongue could enunciate.

"You might get fleas from it," another Fae elder who, by their antlers, was lower ranking than the one Candice took to be Candelaria.

"But for the ACC I'd let you," Candelaria said to the Cernunnos woman, and then turned to Candice, "Don't you have a tree to go piss on?"

"I'll just go," Candice answered, not wanting to be combative.

Candice was still curious about the sheet of bark and reached down to grab it before leaving. However, she stopped on hearing the stress patterns underlying Candelaria's voice.

"Uh- leave that," Candelaria insisted while pointing a delicate milky white finger.

"What?" Candice asked with confusion, "Z'his? It's just--," and then she struggled with the next word, "f'b'ark."

"Oh, of course you can't sense it," Candelaria remarked with condescension dripping from every syllable. "But I can, so put it down."

Maybe because Candice was in her therianthropic form, but she had the mischievous urge to show the Fae they weren't the only ones with magic talent. The bark started to burn where Candice held it, causing Candelaria to taken a sudden step forward with alarm.

"Ohh," Candice voice, feeling the corners of her lips pull forward to create the sound she took for granted in human form, "So sorry."

Candice tossed the bark to land halfway between herself and the Fae group, though the heat imparted continued to burn it down without letting the grass it fell on to catch fire.

Candelaria strode over to the bark and attempted several different hand waving patterns over it, all to no avail. Once the bark had charred to complete black the ritzy-dressed Fae glared at Candice. The writing pattern had burned completely away.

"Ah, Régine," the lesser Fae elder spoke up raising a hand warily, "I really don't think we should upset this one. I think she's more dangerous than just being a werewolf."

"I spent months gathering these," Candelaria responded to the first name, "I'm not letting some mongrel bitch get one."

"I wasn't looking f'for trouvle," Candice replied, still unpracticed at talking with a wolf mouth.

"You have no idea what you started," Régine hissed at Candice, before kicking at the incinerated bark patch and storming off.

The other Fae followed in tow, though the lesser Fae elder kept looking back at Candice with clear concern. After they were out of sight Candice just stood there calming herself. It wasn't caricature werewolf rage Candice had to hold back, rather she was unsettled by nearly getting into a fight with Fae who likely all could invoke spells with which to fight. If they had, Candice would've needed to unleash the inner fire, and she had a pretty good idea how powerful that was.

Candice's left forepaw, the one she'd held the bark with, tingled. Raising it up to look at it, Candice realized the sensation grew. Experimentally, she moved her paw hand around and noticed the tingling grew or diminished based on which way she moved it.

Unsure what this meant, Candice held her paw out while staying upright, and used the tingle to trace down whatever was causing the feeling that didn't seem quite physical. She came to a ring of mushrooms growing around a huge wide tree.

Laying not far from the trunk was an inordinately straight branch that seemed freshly hewn, being still moist and greenish. On the surface of the branch, that was about right for a staff Candice might use, were more characters, though these weren't recognizable to Candice.

About to reach down for it with her right forepaw, Candice paused and then picked it up with her left. The moment her clawed and thickly padded fingers had a solid grip on the stick the tingling in her hand stopped. Something else seemed to warm within Candice, and she realized this staff was meant for her all along. She didn't know what that meant, but she started home with the seemingly crafted and, somehow, still living staff in her possession.


End file.
